I am using Bravenet but theres just is slow and keeps crashing.
anyone know of any others?

Thankyou.

Just make your own IRC server (use IRCd on your webhost computer)

LK, I did a search on Google for IRCd and didn't really find any user friendly instructions for how to do this. Most of us on hosted servers have very limited access. Is there an easy way to do this? Can you link us to any sites for those of us that aren't familiar with the software?

ircds aren't supposed to be easy to set up or use. In all cases, it's best to consult what documentation there is, and pray that there are a few well-used mailing lists...

Well, if I can set one up...

Setting one up != Setting one up properly and securely, properly administrating it, and keeping it up to date.

true, but I think I got that pretty well taken care of. I'll RTFM before it's public incase I am wrong.

I know that "people" tend to do bad things to IRC servers if they aren't setup securly and properly as Charles was saying. I had a channel on ETG that got attacked constantly. I finally gave it up and just went elsewhere. It seems that the more exposure something has the more there are people that want to destroy it.